Doug the Flatulent
Who's for a game of 'Name That Smell'? Overview Doug the Flatulent is a highly versatile character being very fast, a superb harvester and a decent damage dealer all in one adorable package. Offence Doug has a few options when it comes to dealing damage. Firstly it should be pointed out that he has a very impressive 3” Melee range. From the mid turn onwards you should be able to casually stroll to just within 3” of an already exhausted enemy model (i.e. one that has no energy token remaining) and just keep poking them with your lance, completely safe from retaliation. You won't get any damage bonuses and your opponent will play mostly defensive ‘guard’ cards so your damage numbers will be small, but with 4 energy you will make some of attacks stick and a completely risk-free attack such as this is a rare thing in Moonstone! Your second option is to make use of his Chaaarge!! ability. Using this ability you extend your threat range up to an impressive 12” (4” Jog, 4” Charge, 1” Step, 3” Melee range and one energy left for a Melee attack action) with a +3 Damage on the attack provided you choose a Rising Attack or Thrust as your combat move. Unless you do some crafty positioning beforehand (making use of terrain or other models to deliberately halt the progress of your own move at just the right point), using the Chaaarge!! ability will mean you are going to end up within 2” of your enemy, maybe closer, so your going to be open to taking damage in return. The +3 Dmg bonus is very enticing but it only affects your first attack (which may miss) so think carefully before declaring your Chaarge!! action. The more cautious (boring! ;) option above is usually the best way to go when time is on your side. However, this ability does makes Doug excellent at chasing down hard to reach enemies and with the huge damage potential can be a game swinger. The final tool you have at your disposal is Foul Gases. This ability is incredibly strong because it requires no luck of the draw and is virtually impossible to avoid or mitigate. You can even do it twice if you still have your full energy clip and your intended target is close enough to reach with a walk. Sure, you will do 2 Dmg to your self when you use it but if your surrounded by 3 enemy models then it might still be quite an attractive deal. Also on turn 4, its often possible to find an enemy stone carrier with only 2 or 4 wds remaining. One or two quick guffs and their stone count drops by 1 making this gem of an ability a frequent game winner. Resilience 8 health boxes along with a Jousting Shield reducing Impact and Piercing Dmg makes Doug one of the toughest Goblins available. You can expect to be targeted by ranged attacks though being one of the few Goblins to have no protection from an Evade stat but at least the Jousting Shield will mitigate the damage from the likes of Flintlock’s Musket and Fancyhats Pistol by -1. However for all his virtues, Doug is no tank and you should be especially wary of Fritz. If Fritz catches up with Doug you can expect to be taken out in just a couple of Great Sword swings. You have been warned! Harvesting Doug is probably the best harvester of Moostones in the game. 4 energy is a great start for any harvester but the Digger ability pushes him into an elite class. While your other characters collect easy stones nearer your deployment zone you should push Doug outwards to get the harder to reach or contested stones in the middle of the board. Support & Control Doug's only real support role is in stone guarding which he is very good at. His 3” Melee range can cover a 7” diameter disk on the tabletop. Any stones within this disk cannot be harvested by your opponent until they first deal with Doug since harvest actions cannot be taken by engaged models. Tips, Tricks and Troupe Builds Doug is a fairly self sufficient character that can fit into many troupe builds. One trick is to amplify his Foul Gases by pairing him up with Beaky Boby and going in with a back-to-back activation strike on a cluster of enemies - 8 Magical damage in a 7” diameter kill zone could eliminate several enemies characters out of seemingly no-where, sealing the game in your favour. If you pull this off once then your opponent will quickly learn to spread out more in future but hey, maybe you can use that threat to your advantage even if you don’t activate the nuclear option in every game.